I had a couple of interesting experiences I thought I would share with you this week. The first one was on Christmas day in the afternoon. The other was last Saturday.
On Christmas day my uncle and I went fishing for a couple of hours after we opened presents and did our thing with the kids. We went to the usual deep, main lake drops. We didn’t get a bite. After about an hour we decided to come in. On the way back we noticed some dirty water running out of a local creek.
With no other options on the table we stopped and made a couple of casts. The action was explosive. It was fish, after fish, after fish. And, we didn’t catch them on the conventional winter lures. We used lipless crankbaits and vibrating jigs. All this happened in water no more than 2 feet deep.
As best we could tell here’s what was happening: We had a fairly steady, warm rain for a day or two before Christmas. This warmed the water up coming out of that creek. The baitfish were attracted to that warmth, and the bass were attracted to the baitfish.
On Saturday my partner and I fished our last Winter League event of the year in the tidal portion of the Upper Bay region. Instead of fishing the usual winter lures in the usual winter places, we decided to do what my uncle and I did on Christmas day — find shallow, warmer, stained water.
We caught some fish on lipless crankbaits and vibrating jigs but it wasn’t happening the way we thought it should. We flipped and pitched a Silver Buddy style of bladebait to rocks and around docks. We kept the baits right on the bottom with just a short twitch up before we let them fall. Again, the action turned explosive.
I didn’t have a temperature gauge on Christmas day, but I did have one on Saturday. The dirty water from the rain running out of the creeks was a degree or two warmer than anything else around it.
So here’s what I think we learned: First, when the water turns a little dirty or stained and it’s a little warmer — a single degree will make the difference — than the water around it, we should think shallow.
Our final bag weighed 24 pounds, 8 ounces. We had two bass over 6 pounds. I’d guess we culled two or three 15 pound bags besides the one we actually weighed in. That’s almost unbelievable in my part of the country. We won the tournament. A couple of other teams broke the 20 pound mark. They fished much the same way we did.
My lipless crankbait was a Rapala Rippin’ Rap. My vibrating jig was a Molix Lover, and my blade bait was a Molix Trago Vib. All of them were in the smaller sizes. We used braid line and spinning tackle with our bladebaits. It gave us the feel we needed.
Next week I’ll publish my New Year’s resolutions. In some ways they’ll reveal the no-holds-barred version of what I think my weaknesses are, and what I think is really important.
Mike Iaconelli’s column appears weekly on Bassmaster.com. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter or visit his website, mikeiaconelli.com.
